Cunning

So today in 2nd Corinthians 11 Paul gives a hard scary truth.  If you haven’t read this chapter let me give you a quick synopsis.  The Corinthians have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior they believe that He died on the cross and rose again.  That Jesus conquered death and in doing so broke the chains of bondage in order for us to have an intimate relationship with God.

Now as they  are growing in their faith and time has past by Paul is seeing an unsettling amount of stumbling blocks.  I can see how easily I would fall on these blocks too.  One of those blocks he addresses is verses 3 and 4 in chapter 11.

     “For I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve”

Stop right there and consider that.

He didn’t say “Hey you idiots!  You’re listening and believing all this mumbo jumbo!”  No, He was afraid, not very much scared Paul.  He had walked through so much in his life and I can only assume not much scared him, but the thought of even one of the followers of Christ being led astray scared him enough to write to them.

Now go ahead and look at verse 4.

“ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus.”

What does he mean by that?  So many times we are looking for the obvious abnoxious loud unclean spokesman proclaiming that he’s Jesus.  I want you to consider this though.  This could be anyone preaching something slightly different then what the Bible says.  This could be someone going over a book of the Bible and skipping the chapters that might not seem relevant to today’s culture.  This could mean someone saying well I  think the Old Testament is an allegory.  Friends, this is dangerous grounds we’re on here and unfortunately too many people put up with it readily enough.

You want to know if you’re being deceived by a cunning serpent like Eve was?  Read your Bible.  I would never allow a professor to lecture me in college and simply use their lectures to study for tests.  I would read the book to make sure everything was covered before I took the test.  Why in the world would you take another person’s opinion on the Bible when you can read the Bible for yourself!  Now am I saying that you shouldn’t go to church and listen to your pastor? No!  But for goodness sake read your Bible and hold your pastor to the standards the Bible puts on everyone not the other way around.

So please, whatever you may think.  If you’re a Christian read your Bible so you don’t readily fall to another’s opinion of who Jesus is.